REFLECTION

This week I have been able to explore what my state is doing about our fight for our young children's education.I came across  a very educational piece that reasured me that our most vulnerable population will not be forgoten.This article also reflects many of my goals and what I expect of quality care for our children.

. As many as 100,000

children, including the large majority of infants and

toddlers, are currently not served, and much needs

to be done to expand this system gradually as it

is improved to better meet children’s critical early

developmental needs.

The elements outlined in this strategic plan for early

childhood care are a starting point for an improved,

better integrated, and over time, expanded early

childhood care and education system. We start by

refocusing the mission of the entire early childhood

care system to emphasize child development. This

means better aligning the expectations of parents,

providers, and public administrators to the needs of

children. It means redirecting the early childhood

system toward the goals of facilitating child care

quality, access, information, and choice. We continue

by bringing together the disparate systems of care

across different city agencies. The steps we are taking

toward a better integrated early childhood care and

education system are meant to comprehensively

serve the diverse needs of families in a consistent

way. It will allow families to better access and use

combinations of care that match their needs, and to

make developmentally appropriate transitions in care

as individual children’s needs change.

This plan sets the strategic direction to provide more

effective services to support the development of

young children and their families. By reallocating

services to areas of high need, ACS effectively meets

more of the need for care in the city, with its limited

resources. ACS currently pays for contracted slots that

may not be used. This plan will eliminate vacancies

and reinvest the funding for those slots to serve

additional children in high need areas. Moreover,

with the coordination of contracts and vouchers,

Children’s Services will increase utilization, reduce

vacancies, and help to better meet the increased

demands of public assistance families seeking more

stable care arrangements. Most importantly, ACS will

target resources on program quality enhancement

efforts so that more of New York City’s young children

attend high quality programs that nurture children’s

development.

Implementation of

Rethinking Child Care will require

up-front investments. ACS needs the human capital

to implement the strategies laid out in the plan, while

also maintaining the day-to-day operations of an

overstretched child care system. First, this will include

supporting current personnel to carry out this vision

for our early care and education system. For example,

eligibility workers will spend more time on final

eligibility determinations and technical assistance

to programs than on face-to-face appointments

with clients. This shift in responsibility will require

professional development opportunities for CCHS

staff. Second, Children’s Services will need additional

staff to accomplish the goals of

Rethinking Child Care.

For instance, with a renewed commitment to high

quality care, Children’s Services will need to hire

additional personnel to provide technical assistance

for helping programs. Without a doubt, Children’s

Services needs to invest in personnel to accomplish

this needed, but ambitious plan.

With this plan, the Administration for Children’s

Services has embarked on an ambitious and viable

process to improve early childhood development

programs throughout New York City. This plan has

already guided efforts to improve management

functions and ease the child care access for parents

and programs. The positive outcomes for the City as

a whole and for families are numerous: the City and

ACS will incur savings and eliminate inefficiencies

throughout the system to reinvest in children;

providers will have fewer administrative burdens and

receive greater support to improve their programs;

families will have greater access to higher quality early

care and education services; and most importantly,

young children will have greater developmental

opportunities.

This is the future we choose for our city’s children.


http://www.nyc.gov/html/acs/downloads/pdf/rethinking_new.pdf